


Catching Up

by B_Radley



Series: Gandalf's Way [7]
Category: Star Wars: Rebellion Era - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Darkness, F/F, Families of Choice, Friendship/Love, Hurt/Comfort, Memories, Protection, Sacrifice, Staying in the Light
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-28
Updated: 2017-03-28
Packaged: 2018-10-11 22:50:40
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10476300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/B_Radley/pseuds/B_Radley
Summary: A Fulcrum and a caretaker meet. The caretaker challenges the Fulcrum's choice regarding her family.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Explicit section takes place in the next to last section. The rest is mostly care and comfort. 
> 
> Takes place about a month or so after the Siege of Lothal.
> 
> Some incidents are mentioned more in depth in The Lowest Ebb. Not necessary to read, but it would make me happy.
> 
> Thank you for reading. Please feel free to comment.

Ahsoka Tano, once a Padawan in the Jedi Order, sits yet again in the back of another dimly lit cantina, sipping a glass of ice water. She sets the glass down and contemplates the condensation. Ordinarily, her drink of choice would be a Corellian whiskey, neat with branch water back. The way the distilling deities of Corellia had intended it.

But an encounter a little over a month ago had changed that. Not because of how the whiskey would affect her; her status as a Force-user would defray those costs.

It is because of the reminder it would bring. A reminder of who and what she had pushed away because of that encounter. The man who had, among other things, taught her what the distilling deities intended.

The Corellian who she has shared various aspects of her life with for over twenty years. Clan-master, teacher, foil, hunt-partner, then hunt-brother. Fellow padawan and commander. Staunch defender for one battle in the Clone War, as she protected his back as well. Fellow out-of-favor Jedi, if not former Jedi as she was, until he left just before the end. For one brief night at the end of the war; lover.

A Corellian-Mandalorian with whom she had lost close to five precious years with, each thinking the other dead.

Her partner in this whatever-it-was against the Empire. Her backup. _Her Covenant,_ as he was known on his world.

She had ended it after her encounter with the Sith Lord. She had pushed him away, because of the connection. The connection that had overwhelmed her had been with her and her alone.

A connection that nags at the back of her Force-sense, telling her she has to deal with the threat herself. 

It was hers and hers alone. She shakes her head. 

This threat and her tracking of it had brought her to this backwater cantina. A meeting with someone who claimed to have frequency tags from Mustafar.

Mustafar, where her Lothal cell had rescued one of their own, a former Jedi padawan now named Kanan Jarrus.

The place where Jedi went to die.

She opens herself to the Force - just a touch. Dealing with anyone who is willing to sell the secrets of the Inquisitorius, as the Emperor's dark Force-users were known, could be hazardous to her health.

She had not survived to age thirty-two by being careless. She drains the ice water. The contact is five minutes late. With that type of threat, she would not give them the benefit of the doubt. _Guess they don't want twenty-thousand credits all that bad._

She sighs. She stands and makes sure that her cowl and hood are in position. She walks towards the door. As she steps out into the bright sun, she pulls a pair of well-worn sunshades and adjusts them to rest under her lekku. She smiles as she thinks of another in her short list of those that she trusts. A beautiful half-Zeltron woman who had shared the light and life with she and her hunt-brother. Who had gifted these expensive sunshades to her as a trophy of her own kind of hunt.

A loving woman, who had taken on the responsibility of raising the heir to the Electoral Signet, the hope of Corellia, even as she commands a small corvette in a rebel cell. Another that she had not seen in months, even before pushing J- _him_ away.

She closes her eyes for a brief microsecond. She cannot bring herself to speak any of his names. 

Even the one in her own birth-language.

A short, sharp needle cuts into her Force-sense. She pushes thoughts of him away, as she tunes her senses.

_Someone is taking an inordinate amount of interest in her. She smiles. Much more than the few drunks she had fended off, who had tried to strike up conversation with her._

They hadn't even needed to see that her shape was female under her cloak.

Ahsoka rolls her eyes. _The armor doesn't exactly broadcast that, anyway._

The Force screams at her, as it had many times over the last fifteen years as a Rebel intelligence chief. She instinctively goes to her knees. She swivels and kicks out. She feels the satisfying crunch as a knee hyperextends backwards.

Or at least she thinks it is a knee. Whatever it was, the crunch is accompanied by a sharp scream.

A blaster bolt flies over her head, just missing her montrals. She curses herself for not bringing her blasters. A lightsaber would draw too much attention in a fairly close-to-the-Mid Rim world. 

_Oh, well. Guess I can always get one._

Ahsoka reaches out with the Force, visualizing the source of the blast. As she does, another bolt strikes the source of her bolt.

She realizes she is not alone. As she does, an unaccountable sensation of warmth and comfort, mixed with a bit of lust courses through her. She smiles a predator's smile and touches her sunshades.

The smile disappears as her head snaps back from a right cross. She shakes her head. _I have had better, bud,_ she thinks, thinking of a hunter dressed in green and gold beskar'gam. She swings around with the punch and brings the point of her boot to her assailant's mouth.

A sensation of falling human teeth nags at her as she ducks yet another blaster bolt in her swing. She curses and holds her hand out. The opponent's blaster flies into her hand. She looks down with disdain. _Great. Good old Blastech DL-18. The sensible blaster for sensible scumbags. Cheap as well._

 _Come on Tano. Don't be such a blaster snob. At least it is Corellian. Besides_ , she thinks, as she opens up, _Kanan swears by his._

She smiles as she hears several cries as her bolts find their way to targets. 

Bolts come from behind her as well, as her unknown ally backs up to her.

 _Not really unknown,_ as the warmth assails her heart and her lower regions.

Ahsoka feels a strong back, slightly shorter than she is, touch hers. The strength and care transmitted through that simple touch reminds her of her past. 

Of feeling the bare skin against hers. She chokes as a warm, laughing voice breaks into her hearing. 

"Hi, sweetie. Come here often?"

She manages to find her voice as the emotion - that raw emotion that her masters at the Temple warned her about, flows through her from the woman. A gift of her mother's heritage, the empathic resonance reflects the bearer's emotions and heightens them for those close.

She pushes the sensation to the back of her heart. "Not really, dear. I try to find myself in higher-class shitholes."

"Ah, well. Seems to be my lot in life to find the sisters of my heart in such places." She winces as a glancing bolt finds her arm. "I think that we need to blow this place, love. Your winning personality has struck again."

Ahsoka rolls her eyes. "How the hell is this my fault? I was just looking for good conversation."

"That is the problem. You tend to talk with blasters or whatever energy weapon is to hand."

"Says the woman who has at least two blasters and six knives on her body at any given time."

"Only one blaster and four knives. I have mellowed with age."

"Oh, so that's what I have to look forward to at age forty? Shrinking weaponry?" _If I make it past age thirty-two,_ comes unbidden to her mind.

She shakes the dark thoughts away. "You got any options, dear?" she asks. "These assholes are probably after my credit chip and have staked my room and ship out."

"Got two rooms. Over different bars. I always have an alternative. You have a preference?"

"I prefer one without too much vermin. Unless I get really hungry."

"Thanks for that image, babe. Really."

_"Carnivore."_

"Can you get us to the roooooofff?" Dani starts and then screams.

"I hate that," Daaineran Faygan says, as she regains her equilibrium where she has been tossed. "I hated it when Tempest could do it, and I hate it when you do it."

She smiles behind the wide blue, white, and brown scarf that covers her face and hair. Ahsoka starts as she recognizes it.

A garment that could cover a full-grown Togruta's face and montrals, and even most of her lekku. A garment that she had left on an old _Consular_ cruiser months ago.

Dani reaches into her hood and brings her hand to a wing-marking on her cheek. "Hey, sweetie. This way. We will have to lay low tonight, I am thinking. Plenty of time for catching up." Her eyes take on a hungry look. "Whatever kind the night takes us to."

~+~+~+~+~+

Dani Faygan walks up the stairs to her room. She can feel the emotions running off of the younger woman even when she is outside. 

Dani had checked the lobby of the guesthouse and the immediate vicinity. She knew that Ahsoka had already checked and triple checked behind her. She pulls the lock-chip out and palms the door open. She sees the open window and smiles. 

Ahsoka comes out of the 'fresher. Her robe is off, revealing the armor and gray tunic combination, minus the plates around her hips and lower legs. Dani's smirk is brief as she sees the small, bare feet at the bottom of the outfit. "Never seen you in that, love," Dani says, looking her up and down. Dani marvels at the look of raw power that Ahsoka possesses. _Of course, she has that same look of power wearing a lot less._

She decides not to go there just yet. The emotions speak to her of uncertainty. Of pain and grief. Of a miniscule amount of something she has only on very rare occasions felt from this woman.

Fear. Not for herself, but for something that she knows. Dani shakes her head. 

She can feel the hard armor plate against her face and chest as she and Ahsoka fall into each other's arms. Of Ahsoka rubbing her back as they hold each other. They break apart and look into each other's eyes. Azure looking into the obsidian that her eyes have morphed into.

Ahsoka makes the first move and brings her cool hand to Dani's cheek. The Zeltron leans into her touch, moves her lips to the palm of the hand, covered by the leather of her bracer.

She moves to kiss the young warrior. Ahsoka pushes her away gently, with a soft smile. She and Dani fumble for the latches of the armor plate, manage to pull it away from her chest. 

Ahsoka strips off her bracers and the cloth sleeves that cover most of her arms. Dani take a deep breath at the revelation of the orange-bronze skin, with the white markings that have spread from her forearms upwards. 

A quick few seconds and the warrior is clad only in her tunic and leggings. Dani drinks in the sight of the huntress. She returns to Ahsoka's embrace. Her lips touch Ahsoka's and their tongues gently caress each other. Dani steps back. Her eyes soften at the tooth that hangs from Ahsoka's neck. 

A tooth that matches the set that adorns a gunbelt of a Corellian-Mandalorian hunter and fellow warrior. Without a word, Dani reaches down and kisses the tooth. Ahsoka gasps at the touch of her lips. She can feel her breathing increase. She sobs as she attempts to control her emotions. 

Dani pulls away as the conflict powers through her resonance. She reaches down and takes the warrior's hands in hers. Sitting in the middle of her emotional broadcast is something that Dani, no matter how hard she tries, cannot penetrate.

A stone of blackness in the sea of warmth and lust and care echoing through the resonance from the huntress.

"Ahsoka....," the older woman starts.

"I'm sorry, Dani. I don't know that I can. I can't have any of you around me. It..."

Dani places her fingers against the lips, stilling the words. "Hush. We have to stay here tonight. We can do whatever you want. We can talk or continue. I will respect what you want, even though I disagree with it if you push me away."

She smiles. "We can start with our old standby."

Ahsoka's eyebrow markings raise in a question. "This room might not look like much, but they spent some credits on the shower. It is huge."

The younger woman matches her smile. "I think we can do that. Gotta make sure we're clean."

"As long as I get to undress you, heart." Dani kisses her. "It is like unwrapping a Life-Day gift."

"As long as I can do the same. Love playing 'Find the Knife' on you." Their laughter rises.

Dani breaks away. She reaches behind her and pulls the holstered blaster from the back of her belt.

Ahsoka's eyes tear as she sees the weapon. A finely crafted WESTAR-35. A weapon used by Mandalorian warriors, including the young woman whose art adorns the Corellian freighter she had just left.

She recognizes the beauty and craft in the blaster. Despite her appreciation for Corellian weapons, she had been exposed to Mandalorian culture since she was fourteen years old. Her heart leaps as she sees the _Wroshyr_ wood grips on the dark metal.

Of a design that she had become familiar with when it adorned this woman and her hunt-brother when they had worked as peacekeepers for their world.

A four-pointed star carved into the hard wood. A star with each arm differently colored. Purple, green, orange, and black. They colors of an Elder Family on a Core World, as well as two colors of Mandalorian armor. Colors that had adorned the armor of a young warrior who had died trying to free her brothers. A warrior who had claimed the heart of her hunt-brother, who had healed him after the cauldron of Order 66. Colors referring to a lust for life, as well as justice.

The other colors with dual meaning for both worlds. Purple for justice in one, and allegedly, luck for the other. Green for faith, as well as duty. The same meaning, really.

A star in the center in pure gold. The gold of power and vengeance. This star representing the largest of the Five Brothers of the Corellian system. A system now under more direct Imperial control.

Ahsoka touches the symbol. The weapon that is a twin that she has seen him wear, when his gunbelt would be too blatant with its large Corellian weapon. Two weapons that had belonged to his wife.

Dani watches the play of emotions over the serene face. A serene face that had always needed practice and concentration to reach the level of the Zeltron's late heart bond. Another Jedi and Togruta huntress.

Without another word, Dani places her hands at the hem of the huntress's tunic and slowly pulls up, exposing the orange-red skin. Her mouth dips down to trace the path of the garment as it pulls over her breasts. She feels Ahsoka's hands touch the opening of her dress shirt. As her tongue moves up to the Togruta's throat, she feels the draft as her shirt pools off of her shoulders. 

She drops the tunic that she has pulled over Ahsoka's lekku and montrals and raises her arms. There is a snicker as the warrior finds the first two knives, strapped to each wrist. She allows Ahsoka to pull the blades off and gently place them next to the blaster.

Their hands clasp each other's for a moment. They pull each other into an embrace. They can feel their hearts race at the skin-to-to skin contact. 

Ahsoka's hands drop to the trouser belt of the crimson-skinned woman. As she pulls them off, past the knives strapped to her thighs, her heart stops at the golden chain around the shorter woman's waist. Her hand traces the chain to the two objects hanging over the curls over her center.

One, a red and gold piece of amber with a single tooth inset in the resin. A tooth much like the tooth at her chest and in her headdress. The tooth from the headdress of an Elder of the Hunt. 

The other, a piece of the same amber from the spirit-trees of her world. Trees that Dani had shown her when they were first getting to know each other; on a mission to her home-world.

A mission in which they had both nearly died together, facing an Imperial blaster squad, before a number of inhabitants of the beautiful world had overwhelmed the squad with their emotional resonances. A squad made up of probably the last of her brothers in Imperial service. A squad that had deserted, soon afterwards.

Her eyes tear at the sight of the piece. A very rare blue amber with bronze highlights. 

The perfect match for a passionate, obstinate Pantoran pirate, now bonded to this woman. 

Ahsoka laughs as she remembers the negotiations needed to keep the two women from stabbing or shooting each other. Negotiations mostly carried out by a Togruta huntress after a Corellian-Mandalorian had thrown up his hands and had threatened to shoot both of them.

Negotiations that would not have been approved of by her Master's master - the Negotiator, Obi-wan Kenobi.

Although, there was that time at Jabba's Palace that he had surprised her with his dancing skills in the midst of a delicate negotiation.

She pushes those memories away and looks closer at the blue amber. The miniature gold double triangle with that same four-pointed star. A miniature of the Electoral Signet of the Five Brothers. A miniature given to the mother of the Elector-Presumptive. One of two made.

She realizes that in her reverie that her leggings and underwear have joined the trousers with the Corellian bloodstripe marking the sides of the legs on the floor. 

The two women drink each other in. Dani takes her hand and they slowly walk to the 'fresher.

~+~+~+~+~+

Daaineran Faygan sighs in contentment as she feels the cool hands through the small towel drying her hair. She leans back against the front of the huntress. She feels the towel drop and the hands move through her hair to her scalp.

She nearly purrs as the strong fingers massage her scalp. Her eyes grow troubled as she thinks of their shower. There had only been touching while cleaning each other, not the passion that had marked other times.

She smiles. _Plenty of warmth and comfort, though._

The hands drop. Dani closes her eyes and burrows in closer against Ahsoka. She can feel the conflict arising again. She had tried to initiate more closeness in the shower, but the warrior, while not rebuffing her directly, had made arrangements for more 'cleaning.'

She turns around and looks Ahsoka in the eye. She lifts the younger woman's hands and steels herself. "Love, why are you fighting me? You have never had any problems accepting my comfort or fu...." She stops herself. _Using my usual bluntness in describing an act of the heart might not go well in this state she is in._

"Or making love with me," she corrects herself. Ahsoka's Smirk can be felt through the room "You can say 'fucking,' Dani. You've never been shy about it."

Dani doesn't rise. "I don't know, Ahsoka. I am not sure what I am feeling from you."

"I don't really want to be 'fixed,' Dani," she says with an edge in her voice. "Same as I told Nola."

"Bet that went over well."

"Like a turd in a punch bowl." In spite of herself, Dani smiles inwardly at the use of the Dragon-ism.

They fall silent. She notices that Ahsoka is wearing one of her spare shirts. A white dress shirt, bigger than her size that she had appropriated from the same Corellian-Mandalorian whose presence can be felt in the room. One that she is sure that the huntress has appropriated before.

Ahsoka looks up and speaks. "Have you and he made love recently? Or he and Lassa?" she asks, pointedly. Dani answers just as pointedly. "No. He spends most of his time alone. He and Meglann spend a lot of time together, but it is mostly in our A-Wing trainer."

Unaccountably, Ahsoka feels a surge of pride at the mention of the young Alderaani. Pride mixed with sadness at the thought that the young woman had once been the one person she could connect with that had nothing to do with galactic conflict.

Dani picks up on the pride. "You should be proud of her, Ahsoka. She is probably the best non-Captain, big-ship pilot we have. Although you won't get Boge or Thyla to admit it."

There is a brief sad smile. She continues. "He spends most of his time alone. He is not wallowing, but just...quiet. He goes out on a lot of solo or duo missions. He and Drop. Talle. Jamelyn, even. Cubreem and that ex-Deathtrooper, Blank." She smiles ruefully. "All my degrees in psychology and he has done more to help her retrieve her memories."

"Why do you ask about the intimacy?"

Ahsoka breaks down and takes a sip from the flask of whiskey that she has pulled from Dani's jacket. "To explain why I have been fighting you tonight. Don't know if it is fair of me to be touching about the only light I can find, when he can't. Or won't." She closes her eyes. "When I pushed him away," she whispers.

Dani is silent as Ahsoka hands her the flask. She looks up at Ahsoka. "That is pure bullshit, girl. You and he both have the biggest fucking martyr complexes I have ever seen. You know that he would never ask that of you." Her tone sharpens. "You and he have never been exclusive. You always knew - both of you that you would return to each other. You couldn't live on meditation alone. Especially since he lost his Force-sense."

"The Jedi never enforced celibacy on you. Even that attachment bullshit turned out to be just that. Everyone around you knows what you mean to each other. You are the closest thing to a heart-bond there is without the vows. You would always return to each other," she repeats.

Dani wipes her tears away. "I guess that maybe you won't go back to each other, now."

There is a heavy silence. "I am sorry, sweetie. That was out of line. I am sure you had your reasons."

Ahsoka worries her lip again. "No, Dani. You are right to be angry. To be disappointed. But, I have my reasons. Reasons that transcend the oath that we took; to fight with each other."

"I don't understand, Ahsoka. He would - no - check that - _we_ would face anything with you."

"I know you would. But whatever this is, it is mine and mine alone to face. It is my burden." She doesn't add her last thought. _I may not survive it._

Dani realizes that she has said this so many times that she begins to believe it.

Both women are fighting tears. Dani takes her in her arms as they think about sacrifice. 

They break apart. "I have told you about him. What about you? What have you been up to?"

Ahsoka smiles. "Been mostly working with a new cell. Out in the Lothal sector. Even a couple of Jedi - one Temple-trained and his apprentice."

"I was actually referring to your sex life," Dani snarks. "Oh. You mean the love affair I have with my fingers?" she snarks back. She grows serious. "There was one. On the crew. A young woman. A powerful Mando and a talented artist." She Smirks. "I 'posed' for her." The huntress looks down. "I want details, babe," Dani says.

The Smirk takes on a rueful quality. "It was after a particularly narrow escape for them, and later for me. We made a bet. We both lost, in a fashion." She grins. "Or won, depending on your point of view. I needed it. She needed it. Probably won't happen again." Her expression is pained as she looks at Dani. "It didn't help that she is his niece."

Dani's purple eyes widen, then soften. She puts her hand on Ahsoka's. "If you need it, or she needs it, then take it. Do you think he would be angry at you?"

"I don't know, Dani!" Ahsoka exclaims. She calms. "May be a moot point. Some friend of hers from the Imperial Academy has shown up."

"So what? The more the merrier, I always say." Ahsoka stares at her for a moment, then giggles. Their shared laughter rises in the night.

Ahsoka turns and moves beside Dani. Careful of her montrals, she lays her head against the older woman. For the next hour, she tells of her new crew. Of Kanan, a Padawan with his own ghosts and pains, struggling to train a rambunctious teenager new to the Force. Without the guidance of his Masters. _That might be a good thing,_ both women think simultaneously. 

Of that new apprentice, Ezra. His cocky enthusiasm and boyish crush on Sabine belies the thoughts of his missing parents.

Dani rolls her eyes. _Of course, the awe that he shows Fulcrum might have to do less with her Force hoodoo than her tall, athletic beauty, smooth skin and blue eyes._

She watches as the warrior's eyes soften as she speaks of the grumpy astromech, Chopper. An astromech that she shares a past with during her most trying time at the initial attack on Ryloth. Where she had failed and cost men their lives.

Then had proven her resiliency by coming up with the strategy that had allowed her master to defeat the enemy. A strategy that Chopper and his Y-Wing crew had been a part of.

A powerful Lasat warrior, his people slaughtered. A sarcastic giant, who could easily pull his foe's arms off while listening to the ear-splitting caterwauling of Lasat opera.

Finally, the daughter of the Hero of Ryloth, Cham Syndulla. A born leader and one of the best pilots she had seen (coming from one who was the Padawan of Anakin Skywalker). The glue that held the fractious, passionate, and dedicated cell, _no, family_ together. A young woman whose beauty had caught the eye of the young Jedi that Ahsoka vaguely remembered as a tiny, curiosity-filled youngling.

Dani's eyes spill their tears as she detects the envy in the warrior's voice and body language.

Ahsoka shakes her head. "I need some sleep, Dani, if I am going to try to get out of here tomorrow morning." The women stand up and pull the covers down. Dani looks at Ahsoka, a question on her face. Without a word, Ahsoka removes the dress shirt and climbs into the bed under the covers. Dani follows suit. They both lie on their sides facing one another. They touch each other's faces. Their lips meld gently. They fall into each other's arms.

Their breathing becomes regular as they fall asleep.

~+~+~+~+~+

Dani wakens to light and stars playing behind her eyelids. A light sensation between her legs moves through her body. She opens her eyes. In the dim light, she sees a pair of powerful azure eyes under a pair of tall montrals gazing at her over her mound.

Ahsoka's mouth plays gently over her folds; her tongue dipping inside. Dani moves her hand to the nearest part she can touch, the right montral. She cries out as she feels the huntress's lips fasten on her clit. All the while, the ex-Jedi's eyes are locked on her now-obsidian windows. She can feel her resonance coming awake; can feel Ahsoka's explosion building as well, as her light is reflected back to the younger woman. She can also feel Ahsoka fighting it; staving her orgasm off. 

Dani lets go. Her screams cut through the night. Someone bangs on the wall next door, but both women ignore it through their smirks. She rares up pulling Ahsoka's montrals to her. She can feel the lekku moving about her hands. Dani collapses back on the bed, trying to catch her breath as Ahsoka continues her relentless tonguing.

The well bursts again. Dani reaches down and seizes Ahsoka's face with her palms. Ahsoka smiles and places one final kiss on Dani's entrance.

She pushes herself up. Dani follows her as she brings Ahsoka's face to hers. Her taste lances through Dani's being as they kiss.

Dani brings her body closer to the warrior's, locking one arm around her back to caress the smooth skin and the twitching center lek. She brings her other hand to Ahsoka's center, her fingers stroking the warrior's center, gently moving first one and then another inside. Their mouths play over each other's breasts and throats, as they whisper in their birth languages against skin. Ahsoka's own hands play over Dani's back. Her expression wilts as she traces the nearly two-decades old lightsaber scar on her back. A scar courtesy of a dark Force user, who eventually found her way to the light. 

At the cost of her life. 

Ahsoka brings her left hand down gently begins to mirror Dani's movements. They are soon rocking against each other's hands; their cries not quite muffled against one another's skin.

Some of Ahsoka's cries move out of Dani's range, but she can feel them in her gift cut through them as if they were audible.

A concerted banging on their door begins. Dani starts to come away from their embrace, but Ahsoka's free hand pulls her to her. They stare into each others' eyes as the lights and sounds burst in their heads. 

The pounding becomes more insistent as they cry to a second finish. They collapse on each other's shoulders. Ahsoka raises her right hand from Dani's back. "You want to stop banging on this door," she gasps. The hammering stops. "You want to go back to your room and fall into a deep sleep. There is nothing to see here."

They can hear the words being repeated in a Twi'lek accented voice. "Move along," Ahsoka says. They hear a door open and close in the next room.

Dani grins as Ahsoka collapses back on her shoulder. "Pretty handy, that, love. Could've used that in university." She gently pulls her hand out of her fellow Rebel. She brings it up to her lips and slowly, deliberately, begins to lick the wetness from them. Ahsoka watches her. 

Dani falls back on the bed, taking Ahsoka with her. Ahsoka kisses her. Her voice starts to fade. "Missed this, sweetie," she says. Dani's own hearing fades as her eyes close sleepily. She doesn't hear the mumbled addition. "But it doesn't change anything."

~+~+~+~+~+

In the brightening light of the early morning, a huntress prepares to leave. As she finishes buckling her weapons and armor belt on, she reaches down and runs her hand gently through the sleeping woman's hair. 

Ahsoka reaches down and kisses her lips gently. "Take care of yourself, my sister of the heart, " she whispers. "Take care of my family. Of my loves." She stops. "Take care of him."

Dani's eyes open as she hears the door close. She doesn't rise. She knows that there is nothing she can do or say to sway the young warrior from her course. She shakes her head and releases the emotions.

Racking sobs can be heard from the room on the street, as well as felt throughout the building.

The sobs and the accompanying emotions cut through Ahsoka Tano's chest as sure as any Sith lightsaber.

She lowers her head and continues on. The expression of serenity and calm returns to her features.

If not to her heart.


End file.
